Eskimos head coach can't blame Mike Reilly for testing free agency

Edmonton Eskimos head coach Jason Maas and quarterback Mike Reilly (13), who was pulled in the 4th quarter as Saskatchewan Roughriders won 54-31 during CFL action at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, August 25, 2017.Ed Kaiser / Postmedia Edmonton

Mike Reilly’s head coach can’t fault the Edmonton Eskimos quarterback for being interested in testing the free-agent waters this off-season.

After all, Jason Maas did the same thing back in his playing days with the club, trading the familiarity of green and gold as the No. 2 to Ricky Ray for a chance to rise to the ranks as a full-time starter.

While Reilly’s not in the exact same position after having put up more offensive numbers than anyone else on his way to becoming the highest paid player in the league last year, the quest to discover what else is out there remains the same.

And, with free agency less than a week away, Reilly’s just one of a bunch of quarterbacks wondering the same over the off-season.

“The scope of what the league’s done, has allowed basically a lot of this to happen as far as the best quarterbacks in the league to become free agents,” said Maas. “And they’re seeing free agency, a lot of them, for the first time. Being in this game right now and seeing it, it’s intriguing, for sure.

“But ultimately, no matter what, it’s going to come down to Mike making a decision. And no matter what we want to say and do, I know he knows that he’s priority No. 1 for us to give him the best we can and, ultimately, he has to decide whether that’s good enough.”

“I think Mike knows pretty well how we feel about him. And I think what he doesn’t know is how everybody else feels about him. You play against them, I think he knows the appreciation the league has for them, but until you see the numbers from everybody else, or you talk to everybody else, you ultimately don’t know how people really, truly feel about you.

“So, for Mike, whether it’s eye-opening or not, it’s definitely going to let him know what everyone feels, and hopefully we’re the ones that come out on top with the best offer and he feels the most comfortable making the decision to come back to Edmonton.”

And to an Eskimos club where he’s led the league in passing every season since Maas came aboard as head coach three years ago.

“I think he’s done everything but win a Grey Cup (together),” said Maas, whose arrival came on the heels of Reilly doing just that with an Eskimos squad coached by Chris Jones in 2015. “And that’s ultimately why we do this. So, if we had won one or two already and now he’s looking at it as, ‘Hey, let’s establish a mark no one else can beat.’

“But I get it, we haven’t won a Grey Cup yet no matter how successful he’s been, and we still haven’t done that. So that’s the next step, that’s what we’re all trying to do in Edmonton and I don’t think he can look at it and say we’re not trying to win a Grey Cup here.”

Of course, it didn’t help that Reilly & Co. missed the playoffs for the first time since his inaugural season in Edmonton back in 2013. Especially with the spotlight of last year’s Grey Cup being played at Commonwealth Stadium.

But even then, the Eskimos and the 9-9 record they’re coming off of, have yet to suffer a quote-unquote losing season with Maas at the helm, having gone a combined 31-23, while going 2-2 in the playoffs.

“We’re not trying to rebuild, we’re trying to keep him to build this thing to win it with him,” Maas said. “But, yes, he’s been successful. He was successful and won a Grey Cup before I got here, but he’s ultimately been one of the best quarterbacks in the league, if not the best, arguably. To me, he’s the best, but statistically, he’s led it.”

“The system we run in Edmonton, he fits it the best. It’s made for him. We’ve tailor made it to fit him and his strengths. We run things that he’s good at running and he does it extremely well at a high level and the tweaks we’re going to make in the off-season are all done thinking about him being our quarterback.

“If it is somebody else, then we’ll have to tweak it to fit them.”

It goes without saying general manager Brock Sunderland and the Eskimos have to have a fall-back plan that doesn’t include the 2017 CFL most outstanding player taking the snaps.

“I think you’re foolish if you don’t realize that you can lose him,” Maas said. “If he gets to free agency and there’s seven or eight other teams that are going to bid on him, and he ultimately hears a better offer or feels more comfortable going somewhere else, you better have been thinking about other things.

“So I think that Brock and I are both aware of who could potentially be out there and you’ve got to make a decision from there.”

The Eskimos aren’t the only team in the boat when it comes to not knowing their own quarterbacking situation coming into this season.

“No, we’re not,” Maas said. “And again, right now, who’s out there, who’s going to be potentially out there is two different things and we don’t know.

“So you hope that Mike doesn’t even make it to free agency, but if it happens then you’ve got to make some decisions. And probably pretty quick.”

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